James' Date
by Violet Redmoor
Summary: Just like it says - James and Lily finally get their act together. Seventh year at Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: No, I am not JK Rowling, and all Harry Potter characters, places etc. belong to her not me.  
  
Rating: PG-13 (Not so much in this chapter, but later it will be. If I ever get there.)  
  
Description: MWPP; set near the beginning of seventh year. James and Lily finally get their act together.  
  
A/N: Okay... this is the first fanfic I ever wrote, so be kind.  
  
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Five essays in various stages of completion were strewn across the table by the Gryffindor common room fire. Of the five seventh year students who the essays belonged to, only one was paying his homework the attention it deserved. Remus Lupin had never liked to leave things half done, though his friends' loud conversation was making it harder and harder to concentrate.  
  
Sirius Black and James Potter had each managed to write the title of the essay and a couple of paragraphs before Sirius' infamously short attention span had run out. When Sirius was bored, everyone around him knew about it. Luckily for Remus, James was always happy to be distracted by his best friend and surrogate brother, and the two of them could keep themselves amused while he carried on with his work.  
  
Peter Pettigrew, the last member of their group, had stayed working for about the same length of time as Sirius and James, but had managed only a few lines. And one of them was largely crossed out. He was now watching and listening to James and Sirius, dropping in a comment whenever he could, mostly agreeing with whatever they said.  
  
The fifth student, Lily Evans, was ostensibly still working. None of them were entirely sure why she had chosen to come and sit with them this evening. She usually went out of her way to avoid their company.  
  
She said that she had wanted James' help with the Defence Against the Dark Arts essay they were working on. No one believed this for a moment. There was no denying that James was one of the best in the year at the subject, but for Lily to admit he was good at something was not just unheard of, it was a miracle. And in the quarter of an hour she had been here, she had not once asked James a question. Or anyone else, and Remus knew that he and Sirius were as good at the subject as James.  
  
Her quill was still in her hand, and her head was bent over her essay, but she spent more time watching James than doing anything else. Remus looked up briefly, considering what to write next, and saw her at it again. She must have sensed his gaze, because she flicked her eyes towards him, smiled briefly and returned to her essay, putting quill to parchment only to find she had not written for so long that her ink had dried up.  
  
Remus stifled a laugh and glanced at his friends to see if they had noticed.  
  
They had not. Someone had made the mistake of mentioning Quidditch. As much as he enjoyed watching a good game, Remus thought that James was slightly obsessed. Peter was almost as bad.  
  
"I'm not saying the Comet's not a good broom," James was saying with an almost lecturing tone, "but it doesn't compare to the Nimbus 1500. Its only real advantage is that it's so much cheaper."  
  
"But the Nimbus hasn't been updated for, what, five or six years now?" argued Sirius. "There've been so many advances in broom-making."  
  
"Who's the Quidditch player here?" demanded James. "So the Nimbus doesn't have the most up-to-date charms. There's no other serious contender. You can say what you like about the Comets and Cleansweeps, but they'll never have the precision of the Nimbus." Peter was nodding eagerly.  
  
"They might not at the moment, but they've both got new models coming out soon, and more in the pipeline. The Nimbus will soon be looking really outdated."  
  
"Not for long." James sounded confident. "Nimbus are working on a new model, too. No one's seen it yet, but by the time the Comets have caught up with the 1500 the new Nimbus will be out and they'll have to do it all again."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes "Is Quidditch all you ever talk about?" she asked.  
  
"No, Evans... uh... Lily," said James patiently. "But ever since Sirius saw Jennifer Bletchley on the new Comet, he's decided it's the best broom in the world and has been trying to convince me."  
  
Sirius mimed a punch at James' head as Peter laughed. Remus laughed too, despite the fact that he was trying to concentrate on his essay. Jennifer Bletchley had been after Sirius for ages, and everyone knew it.  
  
"Did you see they've put the date of the next Hogsmeade weekend on the board?" said Lily, making a brave attempt to change the subject.  
  
James looked at her in surprise, clearly wondering what she was up to. Coming over because she wanted his help with an essay was difficult to believe but possible. Holding a reasonable conversation with him, on the other hand, was definitely not usual behaviour for her.  
  
"No, I hadn't," he replied. Sirius and James generally paid very little attention to the Hogsmeade dates. If they wanted to go into the village they did, regardless of whether they were supposed to be there. Half the time, they dragged Remus and Peter with them, and then all four of them got in trouble when they were found out. "When is it?" he asked.  
  
"Next week; Halloween. I was thinking," Lily's voice was suddenly higher than usual. "Um. maybe you'd like to come into Hogsmeade with me?" It was plain from her tone of voice that she only meant James. Despite himself, Remus looked up. James was looking oddly pleased and slightly pink.  
  
"Yeah, I guess. That'd be good." Lily also blushed, and Peter looked astounded. There was a moment of silence, which somehow did not feel quite right. Then Remus realised that was because it should not have been silent. Sirius should have been teasing both of them mercilessly. Remus glanced at him to see a very odd look on his face. Oh dear, he thought. James and Sirius did everything together; he would not appreciate some girl intruding.  
  
"Abandoning us?" Remus asked lightly to cover the awkward silence. "Always a sucker for a pretty face." Lily looked torn between beaming at the compliment and glaring at him. In the end she did both; glaring until a smile won through.  
  
"Oh. oh, we'll meet you later. Can't we?" James looked at Lily pleadingly.  
  
"Yes, yes, of course we can. We'll all meet up for lunch in the Three Broomsticks."  
  
"You two had better behave," warned Sirius, apparently recovered from his fit of jealousy. "If you're going to act all mushy you'll just put me off my lunch." Lily ignored him, turning away with great dignity. James pulled a less-than-dignified face at his best friend, who returned the favour.  
  
Remus added a final few lines to his essay, surveyed it, and then rolled up the parchment with satisfaction.  
  
Sirius looked at him with great alarm. "You can't have finished already?" He glanced at his own, barely started essay. "Come on, Moony, surely even you can't have kept working when Prongs has been providing such entertainment?" He gestured at Lily and James. Lily continued to ignore him, but James threw a cushion at him. Sirius returned it but missed, catching Remus full in the face and prompting a swift brawl. Lily pulled her legs up into her chair, looking mildly disgusted, and when all four boys sat in an exhausted heap on the floor a few minutes later, she shook her head and sighed.  
  
"I should have known better than to expect five minutes sensible conversation from you lot. See you later, James." Gathering her work, she picked her way carefully over the remains of their fight as they hauled themselves back into their chairs.  
  
"Girls," sighed Sirius. "They can never take a joke." 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling. Own nothing. Don't sue, please.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
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"Do I look okay?" Lily's friends giggled as she adjusted her hair in the mirror one last time, and she glared good-naturedly at them.  
  
"You look fine, Lil," said one with an air of over-taxed patience.  
  
"You always do," added another. "And Potter's been after you for years... he isn't going to care if your hair's an inch or so out of place."  
  
"That's not the point," she retorted, going slightly red and turning back to the mirror. Her hair still didn't look quite right... maybe she was taking this a little too seriously. "It's got nothing to do with James." That prompted another round of giggling; she waited with her hands on her hips until they had finished.  
  
"You may have to rescue me around lunchtime; we're meeting his friends in the Three Broomsticks. Why I agreed to that I have no idea."  
  
"Come on, Lil, they aren't that bad. I'd have lunch with Sirius Black any day. Or anything else, for that matter..."  
  
She snorted. "You and half the school. The only good thing about having lunch with Sirius would be if he's too busy eating to talk. Knowing my luck, he'll just do both. See you later."  
  
James was waiting in the common room. He turned at the sound of footsteps, but he did not look at all pleased to see her. Instead, he looked rather... cross. She scowled back at him, wondering why he could not even manage a smile, and then caught sight of his three best friends on the other side of the room. Sirius and Peter were laughing uproariously, and although Remus was trying to persuade them to leave, he looked very much as though he too was having trouble keeping a straight face.  
  
Remus had just got Sirius to stop laughing and was herding him and Peter towards the door when Sirius noticed her standing there. That set him off again, making it very plain why he had been laughing in the first place. Remus rolled his eyes.  
  
"Come on, Padfoot," he said, though he was still grinning himself. James glared at them over his shoulder. Sirius just laughed even harder, but Peter finally sobered up and helped Remus to forcibly remove their friend from the common room.  
  
As the Fat Lady swung shut behind them, Lily walked over to James and was relieved to find that with his friends out of the way he was capable of smiling at her. He did have a nice smile, all things considered. Though that was not why she had asked him to go to Hogsmeade with her. She was not shallow enough to fall for a nice smile. All the fussing with her hair suddenly seemed very stupid; his was as much of a mess as always.  
  
Finding something to say was suddenly much harder than it should have been. "What was that about?" she asked; it was all she could think of. "As if I didn't know."  
  
James shrugged awkwardly. "Oh, well..." His eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at her. "Um... shall we wait a couple of minutes for them to be out of the way before we go down?"  
  
"A very good idea," she agreed quickly. She had never met anyone quite as annoying as Sirius, and Peter was such a drip... Remus was all right, quiet compared to the others, but even so there was no use expecting much sense out of him when he was with his friends.  
  
Silence fell, broken only by James shuffling his feet slightly, and as it stretched on Lily cast around desperately for something to say. What did James talk about? The only things she could remember hearing him say were about Quidditch, and she knew next to nothing about that. And she was not prepared to spend half an hour listening to him talk about it, either.  
  
"So, um..." she began, with no real idea what she was going to say, but James spoke at the same time and spared her the trouble of thinking of something.  
  
"I heard there's a new bookshop opened in Hogsmeade," he remarked, his voice sounding strained. Plainly he had been struggling for a topic of conversation as much as she.  
  
"Oh. Oh... that's... good."  
  
He shuffled a little more, embarrassed perhaps, and one hand rose to his hair before dropping quickly back to his side. "Padfoot will have trouble keeping Moony out of there," he added, as if that explained why he had commented. "I think he spends more on books than anything else... except maybe chocolate."  
  
Lily raised her eyebrows; she knew Remus liked reading, but chocolate? He hardly seemed the type; as far as she could tell he scarcely noticed what he was eating at mealtimes, and he was far too thin for someone who ate that much chocolate.  
  
"What is with those stupid nicknames, anyway?" she asked. Moony had to be better than Loopy, which is what they had called poor Remus in first year, but why Sirius accepted being called Padfoot, or James Prongs... She supposed Peter did not have enough backbone to object to Wormtail, but it was hardly flattering. And there seemed no reason for any of them... Remus could go a little vague at times, but not really enough to deserve being called Moony, and as for the others...  
  
"Oh, it's just an old joke that stuck," said James. "I reckon the coast is probably clear now," he added. "Do you want to head down?"  
  
"Sure," she agreed. James pushed the Fat Lady open, but waited for her to go out before climbing through himself.  
  
That warranted another raised eyebrow. "So you can be a gentleman, when you choose," she said, surprised.  
  
He laughed. "When I choose," he agreed. The corridor outside the common room was empty, but James looked all around anyway, scowling again. Checking for his friends, she supposed. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed satisfied when he did not find it, and headed towards the stairs, pausing at the top for her to catch up with an almost confused look that made him look a lot sweeter than he had any right to.  
  
She hurried along with her head down, sure she was blushing, and they made a few more stilted attempts at conversation before they reached the Entrance Hall and Filch, who was checking the students leaving against his list of those with permission.  
  
There was still quite a crowd waiting to go out, but they seemed to have timed their departure well; there was no sign of Sirius, Remus or Peter. Filch glared at James as they passed - he and his friends had probably lost count of their run-ins with the caretaker by now - but let them through with no comment. A couple of giggles told her that her friends were still around, and she glared at them, but James did not seem to have noticed.  
  
"Come on," he said, sounding slightly impatient, and they started down the road to Hogsmeade. 


	3. Chapter 3

The October air was crisp and cold, and their breath steamed in the air before them as they walked down to the village. By mutual, unspoken agreement, they walked fast enough to shake off Lily's giggling friends – thankfully there was no sign of Sirius or the other Marauders – and so arrived in Hosgmeade in almost half the time it would normally have taken.

Slightly surprised to find themselves there so quickly, they paused in the main street and looked around. The usual crowds of students were streaming towards Honeydukes, Zonko's and The Three Broomsticks. Normally James would have joined them but he somehow felt that more was expected of him today.

"Er... was there anywhere you wanted to go particularly?"

"Oh, well, I wanted to get some stuff from Honeydukes, but it's packed at the moment. Maybe if we leave that 'til later we might be able to move in there." Although she had struggled for words earlier, nervousness was now making Lily babble slightly, and she fought to keep a rein on her tongue before James got really annoyed with her. "There's a funny sort of shop down here," she said, gesturing at one of the side streets. "It sells all sorts of stuff..."

"Yeah, I know the one you mean," agreed James, sounding quite relieved. "It's good, isn't it? I found a really neat gadget in there the other... er... last time we were here." Lily did not approve of his and the others' rule breaking; she had made that quite clear on many occasions. Mentioning that he and Sirius had been here only last week, thanks to his Invisibility Cloak, their Map, and a few secret passageways, was probably not going to improve her opinion of him. "Records voices and plays them back. You don't have to be able to see it to set it off, that's... well, you don't need to know all the details, do you?" he finished lamely, realising he might have been going on a little. A glance down at Lily showed her looking mildly amused, so at least he hadn't irritated her too much. Yet. "We thought it was neat, anyway.

He did not find anything this time with such obvious potential as his gadget. His guesses as to what some of the odder-looking things might do made Lily laugh, though, so the visit to the shop was not a complete waste of time. She bought a little book on cosmetic charms. James thought it was a complete waste of paper, and had never imagined that anyone might actually _buy _such a thing, but realised that saying so would not be in his best interests. They managed a friendly conversation as they walked out of the shop, and he was beginning to think that the day might turn out quite well.

"Where to now?"

"Gladrags?" she suggested. He managed not to pull a face; he had been dreading that. He had been in there once, on a legitimate Hogsmeade weekend, when he and Sirius had finally despaired of Remus' dress sense, and ignoring his complaints that his robes were comfortable and he didn't need new ones, bullied him in there. It had been full with giggling, preening girls, shrieking over the latest designs and arguing over colours... They looked around for maybe thirty seconds before Sirius declared he couldn't stand it. Remus, of course, needed no encouragement to leave, and while he would never admit to being wrong, the experience had not been one of James' best.

"Sure, why not," he replied, while a little voice screamed inside his head that he was mad, he would regret it, and why on earth was he letting a girl – any girl, even Lily Evans – put him through that?

Strangely enough, it was nowhere near as bad as he remembered. There was only one group of shrieking, giggling girls, and a few more looking round in slightly more dignified fashion, but it was perfectly possible to look around without being trampled. And it was not quite so _pink _as he remembered, either; evidently he had picked a bad season last time.

"I don't really have anywhere to wear robes," Lily was saying. "I mean, I wear uniform at school, and Muggle clothes at home. But I'll need to get a job in the wizard world after this year, so I thought maybe I'd just buy a couple..."

He really couldn't find it in him to be interested in clothes, but he made himself listen, and said 'uh-huh' and 'yeah' in what he hoped were the right places. Until she pointed at a set of men's robes in a dark blue colour and said

"You'd look nice in those." She went red as soon as she had said it, but he was too surprised to notice.

"Uh..." What on earth was he supposed to say to that? "You think?"

"It's a nice colour," she said by way of answer. "And the material's nice, too..." her voice died away, apparently with embarrassment as she was going bright red again, and she said no more, going quickly on to the next display. But while she was in the fitting rooms with several robes – he could barely tell what the difference between them was, though he was sure there must be one – he returned to the blue robes and, looking guiltily around, checked the price tag.

Well, he supposed it was a nice colour. And yes, the material felt nice, too. There was another surreptitious look around before he checked that. He did need new robes... he had grown several inches over the summer.

But he couldn't get them now. Lily would think it was because of her. Obviously it wasn't. He needed new robes, and he happened to think these were the nicest ones in the shop. But she would jump to conclusions. Girls always did. So, he wandered back over to the fitting rooms and arranged himself lounging against a wall as if he had been waiting for some time and was beginning to get bored. He mussed up his hair for added effect before remembering that Lily hated that, and flattening it again, or as near to flat as it ever went. He would come into Hogsmeade another time, with the Cloak, and buy the robes, when he could do so without getting meaningful looks or comments.


End file.
